The present invention pertains to energy management systems and building environment information systems for complex buildings and campuses, and more specifically to the room environment sensing systems, building environment sensing systems, and use of modeling, analysis, and visualization tools.
There has been increasing economic and environmental interest in “green buildings” and “green campuses.” The “green” concept has come to mean many things and further is unfortunately increasingly becoming a marketing term, differentiating moniker, and political wedge concept used to provoke division. Independent of these, however, are the facts that reduction of energy use in buildings and the improvement of the air quality within the workplace and home have significant economic impacts.
New construction and “green” incentives provide an opportunity to introduce new indigenous technologies to improve energy use efficiency and occupant air quality. Some of these technologies, as well as adaptations of others of these technologies, can be applied to various degrees of introduction and use within existing buildings, particularly if carefully designed with such purposes in mind.
There are many categories of technologies for reduction of energy use in buildings and the improvement of the air quality within the workplace and home. Some of these technologies comprise innovations in building materials and/or construction techniques, layouts, etc. Others of these technologies comprise innovations in power distribution, air circulation, heating, cooling, and filtering. Yet others of these technologies comprise innovations in power generation, power management, energy harvesting, and energy storage/retrieval. Yet others of these technologies comprise innovations in the energy efficiency of systems such as motors, computers, individual electronic components and subsystems (integrated circuit chips, monitors, etc.). Yet others of these technologies comprise innovations in information systems for energy-use and building-environment monitoring. Still yet others of these technologies comprise innovations in control systems for various types of closed loop control. There are many other categories of such technologies as well, with new ones and ideas being created nearly continuously world-wide.
Among the many other categories of such technologies include integrated combinations of the above. For example, technologies for building-environment monitoring and control systems for closed loop control have long been combined in at least some form in HVAC systems. More sophisticated examples of integrated combinations are possible, of course, and this is an important aspect and utility provided by the present invention.
Some major developing economies (in particular China) have significant portions of their national GDP tied to green technology. In the US, many corporate forces resistant to change and their political defenders square off in conflict with corporate forces eager to at the very least embrace this rapid growth market and eventual need that will be, if nothing else, driven by the fact that high-populations in region such as Asia, South Asia, and later Africa will all be seeking quality-of-life and economic improvements that will otherwise demand simply unproducible expanding levels of energy use. The current standoff, whatever the merits, precludes many opportunities to develop leadership positions in these rapidly emerging industries. Thus, a technology approach that does not rely on a prevailing of one side over another in the present national economy provides a basis for developing leadership positions in these rapidly emerging industries. There are various ways this can be done, some of which are brought forward in other motivating contexts next.
A significant portion of the resistance to “green technologies” in general has to do with resistance to regulation and, to some extent, the provision of government subsidies. Thus, a technology approach that does not rely on regulation or government subsidies provides a basis for developing leadership positions in these rapidly emerging industries.
In the non-elective trial deployments of “smart meters” by utility companies there has been a wide range of reasons for resistance spanning concerns of surveillance, billing exploitation, risks of electromagnetic radiation, forced remotely-controlled power cuts, etc. Thus, a technology approach that does not rely on non-elective deployment or involvement with a utility company provides a basis for developing leadership positions in these rapidly emerging industries.
The present invention address the aforementioned forces and concerns with an entirely elective, entirely private, incrementally deployed, incrementally modifiable, relatively inexpensive building information system that provides for a range of energy and environmental capabilities including    Room environment sensing arrangements,    Building environment sensing arrangements,    Statistical processing software,    Modeling software,    Analysis software,    Visualization software,    Data logging arrangements,    Data storage and recall arrangements,    Control arrangements,    Interfacing arrangements with existing building systems (HVAC, solar, valves, power systems, etc.).    Interfacing arrangements with external information systems and networks.
The invention provides for an open architecture facilitating the incremental introduction, expansion, conversion, replacement, and interfacing of the various component hardware and/or software systems and methods.
The invention can be used in various ways, either as dedicated to one or more specific purpose(s) or evolving incrementally through a sequence of developmental and/or application stages over a period of time. Example purposes and stages include:    Trial deployment of various sensors, networks, systems, and software    Early exploratory information gathering    Focused specific-purpose information gathering    Analysis of current, past, or ongoing energy usage    Analysis of current, past, or ongoing energy loss and/or waste    Analysis of building and facilities changes on energy usage, loss and/or waste    Analysis of policy and operating procedure changes on energy usage, loss and/or waste,    Analysis of current, past, or ongoing air temperature distributions,    Analysis of building and facilities changes on air temperature distributions,    Analysis of policy and operating procedure changes on air temperature distributions,    Analysis of current, past, or ongoing air quality (humidity, impurities, oxygen, carbon dioxide),    Analysis of building and facilities changes on air quality,    Analysis of policy and operating procedure changes on air quality,    Modeling of impacts of potential changes to building and facilities,    Modeling of impacts of potential changes to policy and operating procedure,    Simulation of impacts of potential changes to building and facilities.    Simulation of impacts of potential changes to policy and operating procedure changes,    Decision support for potential changes to building and facilities.    Decision support for potential changes to policy and operating procedure changes,    Design of optimal control policies for building air system operation,    Design of optimal control policies for building energy system operation.